The year 2009 is in full swing, and never before has there been so much discussion as there currently is about how to power our nation's enormous energy needs. Any essential energy for our country must surely possess the following qualities. It must be scalable affordable, and safe. Not only that, but our new clean energy source must also be clean, that's to say producing such energy shouldn't cause an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and shouldn't contribute negatively to climate change.

Which of the current proposed clean technologies possesses enough of these qualities to be considered a premier alternative to our current coal-producing power plants? Nuclear has to be considered a top contender. Certainly it's not a renewable or sustainable energy source like solar or wind, but despite its drawbacks, nuclear energy represents a nearly perfect way for our highly developed nation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly and permanently at an affordable cost.

In order for the United States to invest more heavily in nuclear energy, a movement has to begin to gather steam. So far President Barack Obama seems more bullish on wind and solar than he does on nuclear, but all indications are that he's probably an "energy realist" who would be willing to listen to strong arguments for increase investment in nuclear power generation, especially because it represents a strong domestic industry. Nuclear power generation would result in high skilled labor jobs opening up in the domestic market, which is always goods news to any politician.

There hasn't been much discussion about nuclear energy from the Obama adminstration yet

President Obama shouldn't ignore nuclear energy as part of America's future, like he currently seems to be doing. When President Obama appointed Steven Chu the head of the Department of Energy (DOE), he called on him to reduce America's reliance on foreign oil, create jobs, and spur innovation.

How can President Obama ignore nuclear energy if he wants to create a new, greener America that isn't thirsty for foreign oil? He can't for long.

Many proponents of nuclear energy say that Obama should accelerate the Next Generation Nuclear Plant program if he really wants to see advancement in the nuclear industry.

"The Next Generation Nuclear Plant is a public/private cost-sharing technology development program. The high-temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR) technology being developed by NGNP is critical to the future of nuclear energy."

Energy policy has seemingly taken a backseat to the consumer credit crisis and meltdown on Wall Street. That's likely to change in the next few months and a real debate is likely to break out concerning what direction the energy needs to go in concerning energy production.

Certainly increased spending for wind and solar energy will be well rewarded, but so would an upgraded regulatory environment for the nuclear industry. Small nuclear plants could seemingly be a boom for certain towns that could greatly benefit from the energy production. If an emphasis is maintained on safety and education, the nuclear power industry would also easily create tons of jobs.

With the current economic climate, it seems reasonable that a discussion of energy policy including nuclear is likely to be sparked on a national level. Nuclear energy can help with the economic problems because building new nuclear power plants is a sure-fire method to create high paying jobs.

Courtesy: Our Green Empire